Modern Vespa

They have always been really good about shipping to me in Toronto. And many times I've seen Motovista advising people on here about which shipping option to use for various international destinations. I suspect it's a configuration issue and they may not even be aware yet.

I thought it was just me, so I'm kind of glad to hear it's more widespread! Only because it just means it's more likely to be fixed eventually

I can remember when AOL for a (mercifully very short) time blocked non-US IP addresses form emailing a US subscriber. The instant howls of protest got them to rapidly re-think - if think is the right description.

On that note, is Eternal September coming to an end? Today's date: September 11669, 1993. AOL is finally switching off dial-up, although there are still ~250,000 users!

I still use an AOL email address. When I first started with them it was on the Global Village Teleport modem that came with my Mac Performa 638CD. Part of me misses those days. The internet was a much more exciting and less scary space.

Plus, with all the floppy disks they included with everything from magazines to breakfast cereal, I had an awesome set of coasters.

I'll never forget those days early in the century using dial up to play Phantasy Star Online on my Dreamcast, slow to get into the game and invariably lose connection at some point in the session but fun times.

I started with AOL in May, 1991, before there was an internet (I'm a charter member). I connected on a 300 baud modem using the GeoWorks GUI.

I still use AOL as my primary personal email address - I have two other professional ISPs. When I find something good I tend to stick with it. (Married to the same woman for over half a century and counting - we celebrated the 54th anniversary of our first date last night - and hanging on to cars for 20 years or so.)

I can vividly remember the sound of connecting and the sight of characters appearing one by one as messages came onto the screen.

BTW, GeoWorks was the best GUI at the time, IMHO (along with DECmate). Unfortunately, it got plowed under by Windows, not by Windows' technical superiority but by Bill Gates' cutthroat business acumen.

Like IE 2.0 being included with my Mac OS? Don't get me going ... 🤬

Bah - ARM's RiscOS was the bee's knees. A proper WIMP environment with vector graphics - AND it came out in 1987, well before Windows 3.1 which sucked bug time.

I still miss my Archimedes PC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC_OS

RiscOS may not have conquered the world, but ARM very nearly has. ARM-based chips are in every iPhone, iPad, and newer Macintosh computers. Modern Vespa runs on an ARM-based server, and our database (which is a separate server) is also ARM-based. And nearly every other smartphone is based on ARM processors as well.

Full disclosure: I am an ARM shareholder.

This is really pissing me off!

Bummer.

OFG

Are you referring to the AI videos where they have the ten best motorcycles for this or that, and somehow manage to sneak in CF Moto right above Honda, or do some longwinded spiel about the bike that "Will Put Harley Out of Business," that ends up being something you can order on Amazon and have dropped off in front of your house.
It's almost like they're being paid or something.

Na, I'm talking about this kind of format which is presented like a feature but must have been paid for because I doubt that the presenter came up with the idea to promote the brand all on his own in a spontaneous fashion.

Skunked again. Rainy night. Taking dogs out for the final "exercise" of the day. They were a bit rowdy, but didn't find the damned thing for a couple of minutes. But then they did. Before I could get control the chase was on. The older Goldendoodle got an indirect hit and it seems the younger BerniDoodle missed out.

So instead of a quiet night readying for bed, it was bath time to get the oil off (the dog and then me). To the groomer tomorrow for more work and a near-shave. And the smell will still linger for weeks. Ugh.

Doh.

It's been decades, but I still remember what a PITA it was when I let my lab out one night and he came back reeking. Fortunately I had an outside kennel I could banish him to.

Whatcha do?

Looks like you're done for the summer...

That stupid Prima windshield nearly killed me this morning.

Despite using thread-lock and enough torque that I was concerned about stripping the threads, the expansion clamp loosened up, allowing the windshield to drop forward where it interfered with the leg shield preventing me from turning left. It was a foot on the ground moment to avoid a spill. I'm glad I was at low speed in the burbs instead of WOT on a back road near a ravine or something.

I thought the seller comping me for the shoddy build and making I work anyway was a win, but that death trap is going in the trash.

Had to break into my own house Tuesday evening.

Got a text from my wife stating that she was in the garage, and the door to the house wouldn't unlock. We use a keypad, and when she'd push any button, it would just light up red. Usually that means the batteries are about to die, but I'd just replaced them two weeks earlier, and they usually last 6 months or more. It is a new keypad lock, because the original one quit working a couple years ago, so it's keyed differently than our other doors, and I can't remember where I put the keys to it.

After racing home through light traffic, I went into the back yard to see about getting in through one of the windows. I knew that one bedroom window for sure was unlocked, and the storm window was also raised up a couple of inches. As I was about to slice the screen open with my pocket knife, I saw that the rubber strip that holds the screen to the frame was sticking out on one corner, so I simply peeled it out and pulled the screen away. After that it was a simple manner of raising both windows and climbing in. As I climbed in, Gemma was staring at me from the cat tree next to the window, and her pupils were huge. She had a "WTF?" look on her face. Toby was in the hall staring at me all confused, too.

I haven't fixed the screen yet, and I also need to track down those keys.

I am laughing. Not at you, but because we are in the same boat. I installed this super lock on our new steel front door. It has a keypad that scrambles the numbers each time in bubbles of three digits so, even if someone looks over your shoulder, they can't visually get your code or even the pattern. It has fingerprint recognition and a key backup. We also have triple pane security windows that are nearly impossible to get through.

And yet I realize that, if I really had to, I could just push out a screen on the sun porch and get in that way. Because the most likely scenario is that I will eventually lock myself out, not that we have to worry about burglars or axe murderers.

Jeez people, WTF are you so frightened of?

The newer parts of my house are mostly floor-to-ceiling windows, so it would be relatively simple for anyone to break in. The locks are to discourage the casual/opportunistic thieves. If someone wants to break into my house, they'll do so, no lock will keep them out.

Plus I believe my home owner insurance rates are cheaper because I have locks on my doors, than they would be if I didn't have locks on my doors.

Locks, fine, understood. OK, thieves above average intelligence will circumvent them, but the standard Venn diagrams suggest that's a null population.

But steel doors, multiple keypads? State secrets inside?

The front doors on Portuguese apartments amuse me. They throw out about ten bolts around the door frame!

I have a keypad deadbolt. It's not for security, though -- it's for convenience. With multiple vehicles, managing house keys + vehicle keys became a chore. Now I don't carry house keys at all.

(Mine is relatively simple -- no internet connection, no power supply, just a 9v battery).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NJJ1MQ/

I am quite certain that I could have left the front and rear doors unlocked for the eight years we have lived in our current house with no break ins.

We do lock them but I don't think it is necessary.

We had visitors from Switzerland stay with us for a week a few years ago.

They said that they never lock their doors.

Bill

My god, but for all the smart people working at Google (including a number of my former colleagues), they can be incredibly stupid sometimes.

Google has a tool that allows webmasters (like me) to see some of the details about how Google sees our websites, including pages that have some kind of issue that prevents them from being indexed.

Today, I received an email that indicated a new issue had appeared. And, as a responsible webmaster, I went and checked it out.

There was only one page in this category, an error called "Soft 404". It is flagged when Google thinks a "not found" error is being indicated to the user, but without an appropriate error code in the HTTP headers (which should be 404, which means "Not Found", which I'm sure you all have seen before somewhere on the web).

This is the page they flagged: https://modernvespa.com/member/daudet

Can you see the problem? Yeah. There's no error on the page, and it was delivered properly. But this user has exactly 404 posts, which (I am guessing) Google interpreted to mean there was an error on the page.

There's literally nothing I can do to "fix" this page, except to rig the page to lie about how many posts the user has. Which would be even stupider.

@#$% idiots.

Fucking amateurs. I can tell I'm going to be pissed about this for the rest of the evening.

Time to hit the bourbon, then.

I explained this problem to one of my former colleagues (now retired, and who did not work for Google) and she said something rather insightful (which might go hand in hand with her not actually ever working at Google). She said: Which, fucking exactly.

On that note, spotted in a commentary elsewhere:

"The ability to make your lies have the force of fact is a terrifying power"

And their most recent post was 2011, so I don't see that changing any time soon.

The propaganda mill has been doing this for years with great success.

OFG

What jess said.

It's convenience. I only carry my car key with me. When I commuted by scooter, I only carried the key to it. My wife only carries her car key.

Plus with a key pad, we only have to give a 4-digit code (which we can change at any time) to any visitors that need access. When my brothers stayed with us, we didn't have to have keys made for them, or have them remember to give them back when they left. The only reason my key went to the pet sitter is because they insist on having an actual key in case the power goes out and they can't get into the garage.

I had the same model that Jess shared, but it quit working after almost 10 years, so we upgraded to a newer version that will also (theoretically) connect with our iPhones and automatically unlock when we get home, but I don't have the correct Apple home hub product to get it to work properly. The old lock was powered by a 9V battery that would last for several years. The new one is powered by four AA batteries that seem to only last six to nine months, depending on how frequently we use the lock, of course.

We bought the house in 2013, and I have only used a key to unlock the door twice: the day we closed on it, and one day when the power went out and I couldn't open the garage door, so I had to go in through the back door. I'd have done that on Tuesday if I'd had the key. I think only needing the key twice in 12 years is pretty good.

Sheesh, I have four different keys for my house.

That's way too many keys to manage on a day to day basis. Seriously.

I know it probably seems like a small thing, but it's a small thing that you have to manage every single day for the rest of your life. Eliminating that one little thing will actually improve your quality of life.

I could replace one key easily, but don't carry that key anyway. Two are gates, and I wouldn't want the gate key to be the house key. And one will be replaced shortly, as soon as I get off my ass to do it!

Uh-oh...

In Italy could easily have 4 only the one door, then another to main door of the house, and another to gate, and another to warehouse, and another to car-garage etc. And all these could be big keys!

Here in Finland you have usually only 2 and the one another is your cellar-warehouse lock you have purchased. And if there is not that, then you have only one key. And you do not need many locks and systems to your door, as it opens out, not in -so it is more easily much sturdier: you cannot just push it in. You have to pull it outwards with your nails

Our keys usually are quite small, like these:

I was talking with a guy at the local lock shop and he was working on a pet project.

An apartment building with eight floors, six apartments on each.

Each apartment had a key that worked only with that lock and the main entry, but no others.

One master key for each floor that unlocked the door to that floor and all of the apartments on it, plus the main entry, but no others.

One master key that unlocked all of the locks.

It's cool what can be done with locks.

Was that a comment about my post? 'Cause it wouldn't surprise me that CA is considered a different country.